Display device

ABSTRACT

This invention provides a display device that can be updated via a communications network. In an improved version the advertising material used to update the device depends upon a called number dialled on a telephone which is associated with the device.

[0001] This invention relates to an display device which may beautomatically updated using a signal sent via a telephone line.

[0002] The use of LCD or similar flat panel display panels in anadvertising device is known. Such advertising devices show a series ofadvertisements that are stored in a memory associated with theadvertising device. The advertisements are shown usually in a repeatingsequence of several advertisements depending upon the amount of memoryavailable in the advertising device, and upon the number ofadvertisements that have been pre-stored in that device. Periodicallythe memory in the advertising device is updated so that newadvertisements may be shown. This process generally involves somebodyvisiting the site of the advertising device so that the process ofupdating the advertising material is expensive and time consuming.

[0003] According to the present invention there is provided anadvertising device comprising: a modem; a processor connected to receivea signal from the modem; and an advertising panel connected to receive asignal from the processor; in which the modem is arranged to demodulatean advertising signal encoding advertising material received via anincoming telephone line and to send a demodulated signal to theprocessor; and in which the processor is arranged to use the demodulatedsignal to send a signal to the advertising panel to cause saidadvertising material to be displayed on the advertising panel.

[0004] Advantageously the advertising device further comprises atelephone connected to the telephone line via a terminator having afilter in which the filter is arranged to attenuate the advertisingsignal so that said telephone may operate independently of theadvertising signal.

[0005] The advertising device may also comprise an interface deviceconnected to receive a dialled number and to decode said number; and inwhich the processor is arranged to send the decoded number to the remoteupdating device so that advertisements relevant to the called number maybe sent to the advertising device via the telephone line.

[0006] Preferably the advertising device also comprises a remoteupdating device having access to a customer database; a businesscustomer database; and an advertising material database; the remoteupdating device being arranged to receive a number from a telephoneassociated with an advertising device; access said databases todetermine advertising material associated with the received number; andtransmit said advertising material to the advertising device.

[0007] According to another aspect of the invention there is provided aremote updating device having access to a customer database; a businesscustomer database; and an advertising material database; the devicebeing arranged to receive a number from a telephone associated with anadvertising device; access said databases to determine advertisingmaterial associated with the received number; and transmit saidadvertising material to the advertising device.

[0008] According to another aspect of the invention there is provided amethod of updating an advertising panel associated with a telephone suchthat the advertising panel is updated via a communications network themethod comprising the steps of: accessing a customer database toidentify a called party using a number dialled by a user of thetelephone; retrieving details from a business customer database of abusiness related to the called party; retrieving an advertisementassociated with said business; and sending said advertisement to theadvertising panel via the communications network.

[0009] An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way ofexample only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

[0010]FIG. 1 illustrates an advertising device which is capable of beingupdated remotely via a telecommunications network;

[0011]FIG. 2 illustrates an advertising device which also include atelephone and in which the number dialled is used to select relevantadvertising material to be displayed on the advertising device; and

[0012]FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the method of selecting relevantadvertising material for display on an advertising device.

[0013]FIG. 1 illustrates an advertising device 20 which is connected toa remote updating device 3 via a telecommunications network 11. Anincoming telephone line 1 is connected to network termination equipment2 which has an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) filter 21. AnADSL signal from the remote updating device 3 is filtered from any othersignal on the incoming line by the ADSL filter 21 and sent to an ADSLmodem 4 where the signal is demodulated and sent to a processor 5. Theprocessor interprets the demodulated ADSL signal and provides as anoutput a signal suitable for updating an advertising panel 6 which hasassociated memory 7. The remote updating device 3 accesses advertisingmaterial stored in a database 12, and new advertising material is sentto the advertising device via the telecommunications network 11 atregular intervals.

[0014] The signal could be sent via telecommunications network 11 usingother transmission protocols for example VDSL, ISDN for example. FIG. 2illustrates an improved device which also includes a telephone 8 havinga telephone keypad interface 9. A user dials a telephone number and thisnumber is decoded using the telephone keypad interface. This number issent to the processor 5 which then sends this information via the ADSLmodem 4 to the remote updating device 3 via the filter 2 andtelecommunications network 11. The remote updating device 3 uses thereceived information to access a Customer Service System (CSS) 21 andthe customer called is determined by using the number dialled and usingthe CSS to look up the appropriate data in a database 10 maintained bythe CSS 9. Once the called customer has been identified this informationis returned to the remote updating device 3. If the called customer is abusiness customer then a database 13, which contains details of businesscustomers, is consulted by the remote updating device 3 in order toidentify similar businesses. If these identified businesses haveadvertising material available in the database 12 then this advertisingmaterial is used to update the advertising device 20 via thetelecommunications network 11. The remote updating device has a database22 in which data is stored showing which advertising devices areassociated with which telephones, so that the advertising material maybe sent to the advertising device which is associated with the telephonefrom which the call was made. The association may be that theadvertising device 20 and the telephone 8 are co-located. For examplethe telephone 8 may be a particular payphone, and the advertising device20 may be an advertising device which is beside said payphone.

[0015] In other embodiments of the invention the advertising panel maybe incorporated into the housing of the telephone, and the components ofthe advertising device may be housed within the telephone housing. Theassociated telephone could be a payphone, in which case extra circuitrywill be required in the interface device to deal with metering signals.In further embodiments of the invention, the associated telephone may bea mobile telephone using GSM, GRPS or a third generation technology suchas UMTS all of which may be equipped to receive and display advertisingor other data. A further alternative may be a PDA, computer or similardevice arranged to make telephone calls and to receive associated dataas described in the embodiments herein.

[0016] A method of updating an advertising device via a communicationsnetwork will now be described with reference to FIG. 3 and also to FIG.2. At step 31 a customer dials a number using a telephone 8 which isassociated with an advertising device 20. At step 32 the dialled numberis interpreted by a keypad interface device 9 and sent to a remotedevice 3 via the communications network 11. At step 33 the remote device3 accesses a customer database 10 via CSS 21 to find out the identity ofthe called customer. Then at step 34 the remote device 3 uses thisinformation to access a business customer database 13 to retrievedetails of businesses related to the business of the called customer.Once these related businesses have been identified, then at step 35 anadvertising material database 12 is consulted to retrieve anyadvertising material for these related businesses. This advertisingmaterial is then sent via the communications network 11 to theadvertising device 20 associated with the telephone 8 from which thecustomer is calling. The associated advertising device 20 is determinedusing a database 22 which shows which advertising devices are associatedwith which calling line identities (CLI).

[0017] In other embodiments of the invention other algorithms foridentifying suitable advertising material relevant to the called numbermay be used, for example if the user is calling a theatre or cinema, forexample, advertisements for nearby restaurants or public houses may bedisplayed. If the user is calling a restaurant, for example,advertisements relating to nearby taxi firms may be displayed.

[0018] It is also possible for the remote updating device to useinformation relating to the location of the telephone, using the numberof the telephone, in order to select advertising material to send to anassociated advertising device.

[0019] It is also possible to include a touch screen, so that the usercould request that a selected advertiser rings them back using thenumber of the telephone co-located with the touch screen. A signal wouldbe sent to the remote updating device and the remote updating devicewould send such a request to the selected advertiser, after consultingthe database 13 to determine the required details for that advertiser.

[0020] Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise”, “comprising” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive as opposed to an exclusive orexhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of “including, but notlimited to”.

1. A display device comprising: a modem; a processor connected toreceive a signal from the modem; and a display panel connected toreceive a signal from the processor; in which the modem is arranged todemodulate a display data signal encoding display material received viaan incoming telephone line and to send a demodulated signal to theprocessor; and in which the processor is arranged to use the demodulatedsignal to send a signal to the display panel to cause said displaymaterial to be displayed on the display panel.
 2. A display deviceaccording to claim 1 further comprising a telephone connected to thetelephone line via a terminator having a filter in which the filter isarranged to attenuate the display data signal so that said telephone mayoperate independently of the display data signal.
 3. A display deviceaccording to claim 2 further comprising an interface device connected toreceive a dialled number and to decode said number; and in which theprocessor is arranged to send the decoded number to the remote updatingdevice so that display data relevant to the called number may be sent tothe display device via the telephone line.
 4. A display device accordingto claim 3 further comprising a remote updating device having access to:a customer database; a business customer database; and a display datadatabase; the remote updating device being arranged to receive a numberfrom a telephone associated with a display device; access said databasesto determine display data associated with the received number; andtransmit said display data to the display device.
 5. A remote updatingdevice having access to a customer database; a business customerdatabase; and a display data database; the device being arranged toreceive a number from a telephone associated with an advertising device;access said databases to determine display data associated with thereceived number; and transmit said display data to the display device.6. A method of updating a display associated with a telephone such thatthe display is updated via a communications network the methodcomprising the steps of: accessing a customer database to identify acalled party using a number dialled by a user of the telephone;retrieving details from a business customer database of a businessrelated to the called party; retrieving data such as an advertisementassociated with said business; and sending said advertisement to thedisplay via the communications network.
 7. A communications devicecomprising: means for making a telephone call to one or more telephonenumbers associated with a set of data such as advertising data; meansoperable to receive a set of data associated with a called number; anddisplay means arranged to display to a user the set of data received inresponse to a call being made from the communications device to a callednumber.